Amazing pictures of a big dam in Romania. Unknown constructions, at the bottom of the lake in Retezat VIDEO

Lake Gura Apelor from Retezat (video) is at this period at an extremely low water level, and its shores offer a strange sight. In the coming years, the hydropower development in Hunedoara could go through extensive transformations.

Travelers who arrive in Retezat these days find Gura Apelor Lake with an unusual appearance.

The water level has dropped by a few tens of meters, and on its banks you can see, out of the water, the constructions of the hydropower development started in the 70s and covered by water for most of the year.

The roads of the former construction site at the Gura Apelor Dam in Retezat, the rock sorting facilities, the intermediate emptying, located at 1,026 meters above sea level (MDM), the ruins of some facilities from the old construction site, but also the places where the waters of the reservoir have ” bitten” from the banks producing underwater landslides – now visible, all part of the changed landscape of the reservoir, designed in the 70s to cover an area of ​​about 400 hectares.

The hydroelectric plant in Retezat will be refurbished

Specialists from Hidroelectrica claim that the level of the reservoir, although low compared to other periods of the year, is normal for this period. Lake Gura Apelor from Retezat (video) reached its maximum level – reaching the level of 1,078 MDM in August 2021, 35 years after the inauguration of the Râul Mare – Retezat Hydropower Development.

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Lake Gura Apelor from Retezat Photo Daniel Guță THE TRUTH (156) JPG

Also in 2021, the renovation works of the Râu Mare – Retezat Hydroelectric Power Plant (CHE) were put up for public auction, an investment then estimated at 76.9 million euros.

The tender was cancelled, but recently, Hidroelectrica once again put up for public tender the renovation works of the Râul Mare – Retezat hydropower plant, served by the Gura Apelor reservoir (Hunedoara). The estimated value of the investment now amounts to over 136.5 million euros.

“The refurbishment of the Râul Mare Retezat CHE aims to achieve the following benefits: the removal of restrictions on the operation of the generator (100/110 MW) and the increase of its power from 167.5 MW (currently) to at least 181 MW (following refurbishment); cost optimization per MWh produced in the plant; increasing revenues from system services; increase in performance and return on investment above the initial level; securing all the landscaping; adaptation to the current legislation in force; reducing the impact on the environment; reduction of expenses with materials and maintenance activity, preventive and corrective maintenance; achieving a life cycle at least equal to the normal operating life for plant and equipment”it is stated in the document published on SEAP.

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Lake Gura Apelor from Retezat Photo Daniel Guță THE TRUTH (116) jpg

The Retezat hydropower plant was built in 11 years, with an installed power of 335 MW, concentrated in two energy groups equipped with Francis turbines. It uses for energy production the waters from the capture of the Râul Mare in the Gura Apelor lake and the flow rates of the water courses met by the secondary adduction of the Bărbat River and its main adduction, which add up to almost 30 kilometers of galleries, intended to capture 21 streams and springs.

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Lake Gura Apelor from Retezat Photo Daniel Guță THE TRUTH (46) jpg

The water from the Gura Apelor lake is then led to the Retezat hydroelectric power station, underground, through an adduction gallery with a length of over 18 kilometers and a diameter of almost five meters.

Thousands of people worked on the development of the Râul Mare – Retezat

Lake Gura Apelor in Retezat was established in the 1980s, with the construction of its huge rock dam (boulders, rocks and clay), almost 170 meters high, and the Retezat and Clopotiva hydropower plants, on the valley of the Râului Mare in Hunedoara.

Over 10,000 Romanians worked, starting in January 1975, for over a decade, on the Râul Mare Retezat hydropower development, in extreme working conditions (video).

Between 1975 and 1986, almost 50 kilometers of underground tunnels were excavated in the Retezat Mountains, for the arrangement of the intakes of the Gura Apelor reservoir. And also at that time, the Retezat lake dam was built, made of rock (boulders and gravel), gravel, clay, granite, rocky rocks – the largest such dam in Europe in the 1980s.

The works took place in a wild land, located at an altitude of over 1,000 meters and surrounded by the Țarcu, Godeanu and Retezat mountains, which rise to over 2,000 meters, a subalpine area with a harsh, cold and humid climate and with a relief dominated by precipitous slopes, massive granite rocks and numerous rapid and swirling streams.

The hydropower development of the Great Retezat River has gone down in history as one of the great engineering achievements of Romania in the 20th century.